Quick takes on 5 films

I’m clearly on the outs with Sully. It got rave reviews from critics and fans alike, but I couldn’t get in to it, mostly because Tom Hanks is just a little too good. He plays the pilot Sullenberger, who famously landed the airliner in the Hudson River, saving all of the passengers and crew. The film is mostly about the aftermath when he faced questions about his decisions in those critical moments. Sully is soft spoken and possibly the humblest person to have walked the face of the earth since Jesus. He doesn’t understand the adulation heaped upon him for just doing his job. Hanks plays the part perfectly, and thus almost boringly. He is so quiet in his day-to-day that I just wanted someone to shake him to get a reaction. Strong acting as usual from Hanks, but just not enough there to keep me excited.

Deepwater Horizon, on the other hand, is exciting to a fault. This one tells the tale of the infamous BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Many of us rightfully revile the events surrounding that contastrophe, but this film puts a human face on those who faced the destruction head on, purely because of the greed of the BP bigwigs. BP just wants to rush the digging site, because of delays and rising costs, whereas the crew of the ship cautions against haste. When the ship literally starts to blow up around them, it becomes a heroic moment for those aboard to save their friends. I almost can’t believe there were as many explosions in the real event as what happened in the film, but it is a disaster movie after all. Strong acting by Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell, and a solid action film, made more tangible for the real loss of human life on that terrible day.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is all right. That’s about all I can say. It is about a trouple teen, Ricky Baker, who finds new foster parents out in the New Zealand wilderness. His foster mother goes out of her way to make him feel welcome, though his foster father is a bit indifferent. Just when Ricky starts to lower his guard, the mom dies. Through a strange bit of events, Ricky ends up in the bush (wild) taking care of the foster dad, until the two grow close over the course of a couple months. They spend the rest of the film hiding from authorities, who think the foster dad has kidnapped Ricky. The film borders on the silly side in an almost-Wes Anderson sort of way, but has a good message of redemption for all, and not just Ricky.

It is really unfortunate when a kids movie is just plain boring for adults. I can see kids loving The Secret Life of Pets, but I finally gave up on this one after about 45 minutes. Beautifully animated but full of jokes only meant for the under 8 year old crowd, it lost my attention about 15 minutes in and never regained it. If you have kids, you probably have seen it, if you don’t, then don’t bother with this one. I’m not saying a children’s movie should have adult humor, but it needs to at least be engaging for adults (see Pixar).

Jason Bourne is yet another sequel that should never have been made. It is jam packed with action, but also jam packed with completely unbelievable plot elements, that don’t make any sense even on a superficial level. It starts with an obvious ploy to get the viewer to think there is (even!) more to Bourne’s past. The movie literally starts with Jason Bourne telling the viewer that he finally knows all his missing past, and then finds, but wait, there’s more! It is almost an insult to movie making. The obligatory car chase is good, I have to admit, but most of those bumps during that ride seemed to be over all the holes in the story. Truly eye-rolling worthy.